Alleged Carrot-Hoarder Uprooted

Alleged Carrot-Hoarder Uprooted

Article excerpt

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Investigators have taken a Kaohsiung man into custody for allegedly hoarding 300 tons of carrots in an apparent move to manipulate vegetable prices, according to local media reports Thursday.

The bust was made by prosecutors from Kaohsiung and Qiaotou and involved a cooperative effort from police and firefighters, who found that a man, surnamed Chiang, had stored close to 300 tons of domestically-grown carrots. The vegetables were found in a cold storage unit in the southern city's Luzhu District.

Chiang denied hoarding, but was not able to offer clear records of transactions involving the carrots, according to investigators.

Bail was posted at NT$100,000.

The suspect said that since February, he had been purchasing carrots from the Tainan region at NT$15 per catty (approx. 0.5 kilograms), stores of which at one point reached 1,500 tons. Chiang said he had been selling the carrots daily and that his total comprised around 15 percent of market share in southern Taiwan, but that he had no hoarding intentions. …